Personal digital audio devices, often referred to as portable digital audio devices, MP3 players, or the acronym PDADs have seen wide spread acceptance as an alternative way to store ones musical library. Several advantages over cassette tapes and compact discs are apparent. Firstly, the single device can house the equivalent of stacks of compact discs and cassette tapes in a portable and very handy package. Secondly, the digital quality is superior to most analog tapes. Thirdly, where analog tapes may degrade over time and CDs may become scratched to the point where the playback of the music becomes interrupted, the PDAD loaded music is immune to scratching and other degradation. In addition, the speed which one may change albums and the selection of songs is vastly faster than the changing CDs or cassette tapes.
On the other hand, motor vehicles have long integrated features to universally play cassette tapes and compact discs on the motor vehicle audio stereo system. The vehicular audio system can often display certain information such as track number or title of song which is read from the cassette tape or CD itself. To date, no vehicle audio system can universally play any PDAD without the addition of an intervening box. Up till now, universal PDAD plug-ins to the motor vehicle have been limited to an input jack which merely provides audio sound to the vehicle audio stereo system but provides no control as to play, fast forward, rewind, next song or other control features commonly found on vehicular audio systems for CDs and also found on PDADs. The vehicle audio system also provides no display or search features of the genre, composer, artist or song title commonly found on many PDADs.
However, consumers desire that their PDAD regardless of particular type or brand can digitally be plugged into a vehicle audio system such that the audio system can read and display meta-data and incorporate browsing features which are available on the PDAD itself. Up till now, a direct integration is available which lacks universality. The vehicle audio system is capable of controlling a specific brand or type of personal digital audio player. Furthermore, integrated audio playback usually doesn't support rich-featured browsing and meta-data display.
Another method is indirect integration which has required a separate box running an advanced operating system and equipped with a universal plug and play (UPnP) interface i.e. USB port. The separate box adds extra cost in both hardware and software.
What is needed is a low-cost integration system for integrating a wide range of PDAD brands into a motor vehicle audio system that provides digital display and browsing features of a wide range of PDAD brands.